[en] The aim of this work is to understand the fragmentation of small neutral carbon clusters formed by high velocity atomic collision on atomic gas. In this experiment, the main way of deexcitation of neutral clusters formed by electron capture with ionic species is the fragmentation. To measure the channels of fragmentation, a new detection tool based on shape analysis of current pulse delivered by semiconductor detectors has been developed. For the first time, all branching ratios of neutral carbon clusters are measured in an unambiguous way for clusters size up to 10 atoms. The measurements have been compared to a statistical model in microcanonical ensemble (Microcanonical Metropolis Monte Carlo). In this model, various structural properties of carbon clusters are required. These data have been calculated with Density Functional Theory (DFT-B3LYP) to find the geometries of the clusters and then with Coupled Clusters (CCSD(T)) formalism to obtain dissociation energies and other quantities needed to compute fragmentation calculations. The experimental branching ratios have been compared to the fragmentation model which has allowed to find an energy distribution deposited in the collision. Finally, specific cluster effect has been found namely a large population of excited states. This behaviour is completely different of the atomic carbon case for which the electron capture in the ground states predominates. (author)

[en] Frequency tuning systems for accelerating cavities are required to compensate static and dynamic frequency perturbations during beam operation. In the case of superconducting cavities, these are commonly tuned by deformation of the cavity wall in specific places of the geometry. Nevertheless, considering the mechanical properties and the frequency versus displacement sensitivity of some accelerating structures, tuning by deformation does not allow meeting the requirements. Inspired from the “room temperature technology”, an alternative tuning technique by insertion of a helium-cooled superconducting plunger has been studied and validated for the superconducting Spiral2 accelerator

[en] Piezoelectric actuators, which are integrated into the cold tuning system and used to compensate the small mechanical deformations of the cavity wall induced by Lorentz forces due to the high electromagnetic surface field, may be located in the radiation environment during particle accelerator operation. In order to provide for a reliable operation of the accelerator, the performance and life time of piezoelectric actuators (∼24.000 units for ILC) should not show any significant degradation for long periods (i.e. machine life duration: ∼20 years), even when subjected to intense radiation (i.e. gamma rays and fast neutrons). An experimental program, aimed at investigating the effect of fast neutrons radiation on the characteristics of piezoelectric actuators at liquid helium temperature (i.e. T∼4.2 K), was proposed for the working package WPNo.8 devoted to tuners development in the frame of CARE project. A neutrons irradiation facility, already installed at the CERI cyclotron located at Orleans (France), was upgraded and adapted for actuators irradiations tests purpose. A deuterons beam (maximum energy and beam current: 25 MeV and 35μA) collides with a thin (thickness: 3 mm) beryllium target producing a high neutrons flux with low gamma dose (∼20%): a neutrons fluence of more than 10¹⁴ n/cm² is achieved in ∼20 hours of exposure. A dedicated cryostat was developed at IPN Orsay and used previously for radiation hardness test of calibrated cryogenic thermometers and pressure transducers used in LHC superconducting magnets. This cryostat could be operated either with liquid helium or liquid argon. This irradiation facility was upgraded for allowing fast turn-over of experiments and a dedicated experimental set-up was designed, fabricated, installed at CERI and successfully operated for radiation hardness tests of several piezoelectric actuators at T∼4.2 K. This new apparatus allows on-line automatic measurements of actuators characteristics and the cryogenic parameters. Further, the test-cell and actuators are equipped with high purity Ni foils for measuring the total neutron dose by an activation method. In this report, the details of the irradiation test facility will be described then the experimental data will be analyzed and discussed. (authors)

[en] Shape analyses of current pulses delivered by semiconductor detectors under impact of high velocity atomic clusters have been performed for the first time. We show in this paper that the shape of the current pulse depends sensitively on the cluster size. When the cluster is fragmented, the obtained signal is found to result from the sum of signals associated with individual fragment impacts so that recognition of the fragmentation pathway is made possible in an unambiguous way. Application to the extraction of the 29 fragmentation channels of neutral C₉ clusters is presented

[en] We show that an x-ray charge coupled device (CCD) may be used as a particle detector for atomic and molecular mega-electron-volt (MeV) projectiles of around a few hundred keV per atomic mass unit. For atomic species, spectroscopic properties in kinetic energy measurements (i.e., linearity and energy resolution) are found to be close to those currently obtained with implanted or surface barrier silicon particle detectors. For molecular species, in order to increase the maximum kinetic energy detection limit, we propose to put a thin foil in front of the CCD. This foil breaks up the molecules into atoms and spreads the charges over many CCD pixels and therefore avoiding saturation effects. This opens new perspectives in high velocity molecular dissociation studies with accelerator facilities.

[en] New charge- and current-sensitive preamplifiers coupled to silicon detectors and devoted to studies in nuclear structure and dynamics have been developed and tested. For the first time shapes of current pulses from light charged particles and carbon ions are presented. Capabilities for pulse shape discrimination techniques are demonstrated

[en] We measured absolute double capture cross section of C_n⁺ ions (n=1,5) colliding, at 2.3 and 2.6 a.u velocities, with an Helium target atom and the branching ratios of fragmentation of the so formed electronically excited anions C_n^−*. We also measured absolute cross section for the electronic attachment on neutral C_n clusters colliding at same velocities with He atom. This is to our knowledge the first measurement of neutral-neutral charge exchange in high velocity collision.

[en] We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of fragmentation of small C_n clusters (n=5,7,9) produced in charge transfer collisions of fast (v=2.6 a.u.) singly charged C_n⁺ clusters with He. Branching ratios for all possible fragmentation channels have been measured. Comparison with microcanonical Metropolis Monte Carlo simulations based on quantum chemistry calculations allows us to determine the energy distribution of the excited clusters just after the collision

[en] Single, double, triple, and quadruple ionization cross sections of small cationic carbon clusters C_n⁺ colliding with helium atoms at a fixed velocity (2.6 atomic units) have been measured. The size ranges from n=1 to n=10 for single to triple ionization, from n=5 to n=10 for the quadruple ionization. The dependence of the cross sections with the cluster size is found to be well reproduced by predictions of the independent atom and electron (IAE) collision model. This extends the applicability of this simple model to higher n values and to a higher ionization degree than previously done [M. Chabot et al., Eur. Phys. J. D 14, 5 (2001)]. The branching ratios of multiply charged C_n^q+ clusters remaining intact over a 100 ns time window have been measured (n=3-10, q=2-3). Branching ratios of nonfragmented doubly charged clusters have been interpreted on the basis of calculated internal energies of C_n²⁺ due to single ionization of C_n⁺ clusters using the IAE model. This allowed estimates of the minimum energies required to fragment these C_n²⁺ species to be derived

[en] Dissociation Branching Ratios of C_nH^q+ molecules formed by multi-ionization of incident C_nH⁺ projectiles colliding in high velocity collisions with a Helium atom have been measured. In addition, the KER of the H⁺ fragment for each channel was extracted. A striking feature that we obtained is the fact that the KER (Kinetic Energy Release) is always far below predictions of the point charge coulomb model (PCCM) even at large q values. For CH^q+, we could explain this result on the basis of electronic state calculations and taking into account the fact that 1s ionization of the carbon atom occurs and has its own dynamics.